From Incunabula toDigital Texts: Teaching the

History of Printing to Undergraduates

David OberhelmanOklahoma State University Library

Stillwater, OK

Renaissance Print History

• 2011 – New Shakespeare/Renaissance literature professor Dr. Wadoski wanted to include history of the book and print culture

• Approached OSU library to collaborate on assignments using digital text collections (Early English Books Online/EEBO) and other databases (esp. biographical databases)

• Discussed library’s collection of rare books and Otto M. Forkert typography collection with examples of printed sheets from 1400s to 1800s

• English librarian and Special Collections technician Sarah Coates partnered with professor to introduce students to early books, bookbinding, printers, and the cultural aspects of the early book trade in 1500s-1600s England

Goals and Objectives

• Introduce students to the material culture of the book trade in the Renaissance and how it affected the production of literature– Increase exposure to the books in print during

that era/ideas in circulation

– Learn about printers, technology, and how books were published and distributed

– Use digital and archival library materials to help modern students learn about the world of Renaissance book making and transition from manuscript to print culture

Courses with Print History Components

• Fall 2011, Spring 2012, & Fall 2013 taught print culture in 3000- & 4000-level Shakespeare courses, first with EEBO– Keywords assignment– Printer biography assignment– Rare books demo

• Fall 2012 4000-level Renaissance Literature & Protestantism Course– Tie-in with NEH traveling exhibit on the 400th

anniversary of the King James Bible– Keywords assignment– Protestantism, Bible translation, and the book

trade

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

Short Title Catalogue Works 1475-1700126,000 Page Images and Text Creation

Partnership Hand-Keyed Text (for ~25,000 Titles)

History of Print & the Book Introduction

• History of Renaissance Print in Classroom– Manuscript Culture to Gutenberg

– Caxton and early printing in England

– English printing trade (printers and apprentices)

– Stationers' Company and royal censorship

• Printing of Shakespeare's plays– MSS and “fair”/“foul” papers

– Quartos (“bad” and “good”)

– First Folio (1623)

 

Library Research Guide on Print History / Printing Shakespeare’s

Plays

“Words, Words, Words”: Shakespearean Keywords AssignmentYour presentation should focus on telling the class what your EEBO search shows about Early Modern perceptions of one particular concern reflected in the Shakespeare play you are researching.  You and your classmates my present a concentrated look at any one text you discover, or you may decide to survey the works you find, pulling up materials on the computer in front of the room.

 Recommended Keywords: • Troilus and Cressida

– Pander

• King Lear– King Lear (to find original texts)– Nature– Bastard

• Twelfth Night– Epiphany– Melancholy– Hermaphrodite– Puritan

•  Macbeth– Fancy, fantasy– Witch

• Winter’s Tale– Statues– Bearbaiting– Shepherds– Garden

• Othello– Moor– Antipodes– Jealousy

• Tempest– Algiers– Africa– Alchemy– Magic

Subject Keyword Search

Keyword Search Results

Printers’ Biographies Assignment

This assignment is intended to give you a sense of the print history of Shakespeare's plays; a better understanding of the Renaissance English book trade and period print culture; and the chance to hone your research skills as you navigate and synthesize a variety of online resources. It will also give the chance to see (at least in online scans) what printed texts looked like in Shakespeare's time. 1. Using EEBO, compile a bibliography of the printed editions of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Richard III , or Hamlet up to and including the 1623 Folio.

2. Using the Dictionary of National Biography and the Dictionary of Literary Biography, find out information about the PRINTER of one of these editions and write a short (-1 page) synthesis and summary of the DNB/DLB articles that focuses on the most relevant, pertinent, and interesting information. If your first choice of printer does not yield results in these two works, find another printer to write about. Be careful- there may be a number of people in these dictionaries with the same name. Just because you are writing about John Q Smith, do not assume that the first John Q Smith you come across in the DNB is the one you are looking for. Pay attention to dates and details (i.e. doe the bio mention that this individual was, in fact, a printer? Was this person alive at the time these works were being printed? Etc.) Be especially careful about fathers and sons, who often shared both names and professions.  

EEBO Records w/ Printers

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

JSTOR (Articles)

Dictionary of Literary Biography

Hamlet QuartoEEBO and Photograph Comparison

Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles [History of England, etc.] (1587) –

EEBO

Holinshed in Print

Rare Book Demonstrations

• After working with the EEBO texts, students have opportunity to view incunabula and books up to 17th-century in Special Collections in original format (vs. microfilm/digital copies)

• Learn immediacy of primary sources, discover errors in translation, copying

• Learn about printing and see how books were bound, paper/parchment used, typeface and fonts, etc.

• Tie in with assignments on the history of print culture

Renaissance Literature & Protestantism Course

• Focus on the politics of Bible translation in Tudor and early Stuart England: – William Tyndale– Desiderius Erasmus– Thomas More– Geneva Bible– King James Bible (1611)

• Tied in with the King James Bible Exhibit with lectures on religious and book history

Renaissance Literature EEBO and Rare Books

• Keywords assignment with EEBO modified to focus on religious terminology– Heretics– Martyr– Incarnation, etc.

• Librarians led tour of exhibit and rare books/examples of early printing highlighting Protestantism and the Bible

King James Bible Exhibit

King James Bible Panels

“Wicked” Bible (1631)

Sarah Coates’s Presentation –http://prezi.com/ti3azrlyab8h/th

e-history-of-printing/

King James Bible Page (Proverbs)

Rare Books Display in Gallery

Rare Books in Special Collections

Gutenberg 42-Line BibleFacsimile

Caxton Facsimile

First Folio Facsimile to Show Binding (Cords)

Facsimile First Folio –Clasps

Epistole Sancti Hieronymi (ca. 1496-1599) –

Boards & Clasps

Erasmus, In Praise of Folly[Moriæ Encomium] (1629 ed.)

Erasmus – Marginalia, Vellum Binding

1684 Volume with Virgil, Ovid, Dryden

Nuremberg ChronicleLiber Chronicarum (1497) –

Tooled Leather Cover

Map of Winds, Venice (ca. 1500) –Forkert Typography Collection

School Primer MS, Colonial America (1777)

Possible Future Projects Using Digital Library/Archival Materials

• Graduate student internship/project to do descriptive/analytical bibliographic studies of rare books or MSS in Special Collections

• Supervised undergraduate group projects with rare books and Forkert typographical examples – group presentations on books or printing with digital photos, etc., in PPT or Prezi

• Tie in EEBO assignment with the actual books in Special Collections (as with Holinshed or Erasmus) – what they learn from the “real thing” vs. digital surrogate

• Embedded librarian or co-instructor in courses on Early Modern Literature & the History of the Book

Contact Details

David Oberhelmand.oberhelman@okstate.edu